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Robert Helps
Live performances by Andrew Infanti
Robert Helps (1928-2001) proudly takes his place in the grand tradition of composer-pianists. Each of his works expresses his unique approach to an instrument rich in history.
From his substantial catalogue, Andrew Infanti selects three compositions here :
• Berceuse is a piece for 2 pianos, 6 hands, composed in 1996, performed live by Andrew Infanti, Thomas Christensen, and Sergey Schepkin;
• Shall We Dance for solo piano is a work composed in 1994; performed live by Andrew Infanti;
• Testament is a transcription of the homonymous french Mélodie by Henri Duparc (for voice and piano, 1885) composed by Robert Helps in 1998. A live performance by Andrew Infanti.
Berceuse for 2 pianos, 6 mains (1996)
Helps places the solo piano in antiphonal opposition to the four-hand piano, a sort of rêverie vs. nightmare, cradle vs. grave, which in the final pages arrives at an unsettling synthesis.
Shall We Dance for solo piano (1994)
Shall We Dance is “a sensuous, but serious work”, according to the composer. Perhaps Helps’ Magnum Opus for solo piano, this sumptuous, nostalgic piece is open to a broad number of emotional interpretations that make equal sense due to its strength of form, as in Chopin’s Ballades. Andrew Infanti, a student of Robert Helps, has had the chance to play this marvelous piece numerous times.
Testament for solo piano (1998)
Robert Helps has published four piano transcriptions of vocal repertoire. In Testament, the latest in a series begun in 1988, Helps transcribes Henri Duparc’s most turbulent and bitter song. The piece takes very few harmonic or textural liberties yet manages to create a very original sound world through its primary suggestion to take a much more “tempestuous” tempo than Duparc’s “modéré sans lenteur”.
